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Now in its 16th round, Zwift Racing League continues to take racing to the next level on Zwift! The first round of the 2025/26 season is now underway.
This page contains everything you need to know about the current ZRL round, and is updated as WTRL announces new details.
Intro to ZRL
Zwift Racing League (ZRL) is team-based racing for all abilities. It’s also the world’s largest virtual cycling competition, with over 30,000 riders of all abilities participating in each of the past two seasons!
Organized by WTRL, this is a team-based points competition spanning multiple weeks, with teams divided into divisions based on time zones and ability. Races take place every Tuesday, and the season is divided into distinct rounds with brief breaks in between.
ZRL is Zwift racing at its highest level. Its unique structure and varied race formats drive serious Zwift racers to show up week after week while providing a place for new racers who jump in and find their first team home.
Key Changes this Round
Each year, Zwift + WTRL collaborate to modify ZRL’s structure and rules with the aim of engaging as many racers as possible. The vast majority of these changes are announced before the first round of each season, which means here in the first round of 2025/26, we have a lot of changes! Some of the details haven’t yet been ironed out, but we’ll tell you what we know (with our comments in italics), and update this post as we learn more.
- Teams can now choose one of two options at registration. This effectively opens up a sort of “split category” system where lower-powered teams can still be competitive instead of being outgunned by teams stuffed with riders at the top of their pace category.
- Standard Division: Teams may include any riders who fall below the standard category limit for their division (e.g., B category zFTP max = 4.19 W/kg).
- Development Division: Designed for teams focused on rider development, this division enforces a lower zFTP cap within each category (e.g., B category zFTP max = 3.79 W/kg). This ensures a fairer and more supportive racing environment for improving athletes.
- League Nomenclature has changed to colors rather than geographic/compass points. Hurray for simplicity! Racers will certainly be happy to replace racing in “Open EMEA-W Southern (West) Division B2” with something like “Red League B2”:
- APAC becomes Blue colors (navy, teal, etc)
- EMEA East becomes Green colors (green, sage, etc)
- EMEA West becomes Red colors
- Americas becomes Yellow colors
- A new ‘Find Your Crew’ tool will open in a couple of weeks to help riders easily find a team. WTRL+Zwift have talked about a team finder tool for years, so we’ll believe it when we see it. But we do agree that a tool like this is vital if ZRL wants new riders to join in the fun!
- Slightly modified Rules and Scoring will be announced soon.
- Most races throughout the season will feature routes for A/B teams that are longer than the routes for C/D. ZRL has returned to a goal of 40 minutes for C/D races and 1 hour for A/B, although there may be a race or two that extends beyond to test teams’ endurance.
- Instead of 3 rounds followed by the Finals, the 2025/26 season will have 4 standalone rounds and no Finals.
- Rounds 1 and 4 are 4 weeks long, and Rounds 2 and 3 are 6 weeks long.
- Rounds no longer interconnect with each other. There is no promotion or relegation between rounds, and a prize-winning team will be declared for each division after each round. Teams will be seeded into their divisions prior to the start of each round based on WTRL’s ranking algorithm, which takes into account a variety of factors, including riders’ Zwift Racing Score). We like this. Promotion/relegation never worked well, because it was not a continuous system: teams were never promoted from, say, B1 to A2, or relegated from the lower A division to B1. This simplified system re-groups and ranks teams before each round based on WTRL’s algorithm.
- Rounds are now themed, with Zwift carefully selecting existing and designing new routes to suit the theme and category durations.
- Round 1: Coast Clash
- Round 2: City Showdown
- Round 3: Redline Rally
- Round 4: Legends Route
- Bike upgrades are enabled in all races. This is controversial for sure, but we like it. If Zwift is going to build bike upgrades into their ecosystem, then its most popular race series should utilize those upgrades! Start working on your TT frame upgrade if you haven’t yet…
- Steering/braking is still disabled, but there will be steering/braking leagues in rounds 2 and 3. Inside sources tell us that most Zwifters in the US, Canada, and EU now have steering/braking hardware. Perhaps this is the year that steering/braking races become mainstream?
One thing that isn’t changing: riders are still categorized based on Zwift’s Pace Group Categories, just like previous ZRL seasons. While Zwift Racing Score is a factor in WTRL’s team ranking algorithm, it does not determine your team’s category (A/B/C/D).
For more info, see ZRL Technical Guide & Rules, version 5.0.1 >
Routes and Dates
Each ZRL round comprises weekly races which are either scratch races, points races, or team time trials (TTT). Scratch Races and Points Races are both actually points-based in terms of final results, but Points races include intermediate segments while Scratch Race points are all earned at the finish line. TTT winners are the teams who complete the race course fastest, with team time taken from the fourth rider across the line.
Race #1: Southern Coast Cruise
September 16, 2025 (TTT)
We kick off the season with a team time trial on a brand-new route! Southern Coast Cruise is a rolling route that covers the eastern portion of Watopia’s southern coast road in both directions… click the link below for details.
- 1 Lap of Watopia’s Southern Coast Cruise (26.3km, 147m elevation)
- PowerUps: none 🛈
Race #2: Fine and Sandy
September 23, 2025 (Points Race)
Our first points race of the season takes us on a figure-eight tour of Urukazi’s lower roads on a route that is quite flat, except in the one spot where it isn’t. That dirty Mech Isle climb will be a key selection point, especially on the final lap!
- A/B: 4 Laps of Makuri Islands’ Fine and Sandy (42.5km, 309m elevation)
- C/D: 3 Laps of Makuri Islands’ Fine and Sandy (31.9km, 232m elevation)
- PowerUps: Aero Boost (75%), Steamroller (25%) 🛈
- Intermediate Segments (FAL+FTS):
Race #3: Country to Coastal (A/B) or Turf N Surf (C/D)
September 30, 2025 (Scratch Race)
Our first scratch race of the season is held on two different routes, based on category. A and B squads will race on Country to Coastal, looping around the Yumezi countryside and Urukazi harbor. C and D squads head to Turf N Surf, which takes in the same Urukazi harbor roads but begins and ends on Neokyo’s flat, permadark streets.
- A/B: 1 Lap of Makuri Islands’ Country to Coastal (33.5km, 284m elevation)
- PowerUps: 🛈
- Village Sprint: Draft Boost
- Country Sprint: Anvil
- Shisa Sprint: Steamroller
- Tidepool Sprint: Feather
- Flatland Loop Start/Finish arch: Burrito
- C/D: 1 Lap of Makuri Islands’ Turf N Surf (24.7km, 198m elevation)
- PowerUps: 🛈
- Alley Sprint: Draft Boost
- Shisa Sprint: Feather
Race #4: Jarvis Seaside Sprint
October 7, 2025 (Points Race)
Our final race for this round is on yet another new route. Jarvis Seaside Sprint combines a clockwise loop of Jarvis Island with a lap of the Seaside Sprint route, and we’ll be racing 2-3 laps depending on category.
- A/B: 3 Laps of Watopia’s Jarvis Seaside Sprint (40.3km, 321m elevation)
- C/D: 2 Laps of Watopia’s Jarvis Seaside Sprint (27.8km, 226m elevation)
- PowerUps: 🛈
- Downtown Watopia Start/Finish arch: Aero
- JWB Sprint: Draft Boost
- Jarvis Sprint: Feather
- Jarvis KOM: Burrito
- Jarvis Lap arch: Aero
- Volcano arch: Ghost
- Intermediate Segments (FAL+FTS):
Race Timeslots
Some divisions and start times get tweaked between each round, so use the table below to find a current time slot that works for your team.
Teams/Registration
Team registration opens August 19, 2025 at wtrl.racing/zrl-registration, and closes September 13, 2025 at 00:00 UTC.
ZRL is a team-based competition – you cannot sign up as an individual rider. Teams can have up to 12 racers rostered, but only 6 can race in each event. Teams must have at least 4 riders on their roster, and a rider can be rostered on no more than 2 teams per round.
Want to race, but don’t have a team? Here are seven ways to find a team:
- Recruit friends onto a new ZRL team, then sign up your team at wtrl.racing/zrl-registration/.
- If you’re already a member of a larger Zwift Club, contact a senior Club representative to see if you can join one of your Club’s ZRL teams.
- Join an official team-lead ZRL Group Recon Ride (see below) where several teams can be found looking for more riders. These run several times a day, starting two weeks before the first race.
- Join the ZRL Facebook Group and post preferred race times/league, Pace Group Category, and any other preferences under the #zrlteamhunt tag where many teams are eagerly waiting.
- Reply to one of the #zrlrecruiting posts that teams make in the ZRL Facebook Group if you don’t want to post your own request.
- Reach out directly to WTRL and they can match you to a team based on race times, category, and team preferences.
- Use the new “Find Your Crew” tool, which should be available by early September at wtrl.racing/zwift-racing-league/teamhunt/.
First-Timer Tips
If this is your first time racing on Zwift, here are a few tips to get you started fast:
- You must create a WTRL profile linked to your Zwift account – do so at wtrl.racing/registration
- The minimum category you’ll race is determined by your power history on Zwift. See this post for details.
- Riders must use a power sensor to transmit power to the game – this would be a smart trainer, smartbike, or power meter. (You’re allowed to race C and D categories with a “classic” trainer and virtual power, but your points are cut in half.)
- Heart rate monitors are required. (You’re allowed to race without a HRM, but your points are cut in half.)
- Cadence monitors are required.
- You’ll want to have at least a few races under your belt before you try to join a team, so you are confident that you’re in the correct category. It causes a lot of hassle if you join a team and are forced to upgrade to a new category mid-round!
Race Recon Events
If you’re unfamiliar with a particular week’s race course, join a ZRL recon ride! These happen multiple times per day and are led by experienced racers who may share route info and racing tips as you ride.
Find a list of upcoming ZRL recon rides at zwift.com/events/tag/zrlrecon >
2025/26 ZRL Dates
- Round 1: September 16-October 7, 2025
- Round 2: November 4-December 9, 2025
- Round 3: January 6-February 10, 2026
- Round 4: April 7-28, 2026
Questions or Comments?
We recommend checking out WTRL’s Zwift Racing League page for rules, team registration, results, and more. They also have a Help Center with lots of useful info, and their Facebook page is the place to go for discussion of all things ZRL.
You may also share questions or comments below!
Will we have to re-register from scratch? I can’t see anything so far that says that existing teams from the last round will have a simple way to re-register themselves.
Eric, I haven’t participated in the ZRL before, but was hoping to try it this time. Unfortunately, I’ll be out off town for the first few weeks of Round 1. Is it possible to join the league beginning with Round 2? Or would it be possible that I could join prior to Sep 13 and that a team would be willing to select me, even though I won’t be able to race until October? Thanks!
New riders can join at any time, and new teams can join at the start of each round during the team signup period.
I’d say your best bet would be to just wait until round 2… see if you can find a team to start racing with at that point!
Sounds good! Thanks, Eric.
Is there a chart of all the +/- category limits?
https://www.wtrl.racing/zwift-racing-league/resources/
“Inside sources tell us that most Zwifters in the US, Canada, and EU now have steering/braking hardware.”
Color me skeptical. How did the Canadians even get the hardware? Smuggling it over the border? And even if people do, are they like me and don’t have them installed having put them away after one use?
WTRL supplies Zwift hardware Canada-wide. https://shop.wtrl.racing/collections/zwift-accesories
Agree, this sounds very unlikely. It’s easy to see how riders with steering as icon shows in the UI and only a small percentage do. Not helped by the fact that both the WTRL and zwift stores have no stock of the play controllers
The zwift play controllers are not available in Australia–which is a shame.
So development division is basically just more categories between current pace group categories?
Yes. They have split the standard A-D categories into “A High”, “A Low”, etc, but chose to name them “A Standard”, “A Development”, etc.
Hi, Eric! Thank your for another quality wrap-up! Let’s see what “the sorting algorithm” is capable of. One sad question I’m always having upon WTRL race schedule release — “Why is everything so boringly flat again?” Why not let some stages be this flat, but let other ones provide at least 800 m (2500 ft) of gain for the racing hour? Hope you address the issue one day in an article.
As ever since the infamous Innsbruck KOM climb where an entire team of riders had to stop prior to the top of the climb to ensure they didnt break category limits, both Zwift & WTRL are scared of the feedback they get that hilly races force riders to upgrade. So to pander to those holding back their power they dont put long climbs in like that or if they do, they then have to move the limits and make sure the race is in the back 50% of events – And it all becomes just a little more of a farce.
Of course Eric wont be allowed to say these things in an article, he knows where his next pay check is coming from
Thanks for the point, JLH! I’ve done all ZRL stages from the last September on, but have no idea on prior events in the series. Now I can see Innsbruck afterparty has been actually featured a couple of times. The only reason for ZRL to persistently avoid such courses must be marketing then. Pity…
double
And still no start times between 5am and 9am NA West Coast aka PDT. Followed by TEN start times between 9am and noon with a bunch of them 15 minutes apart. Really? Defies comprehension. So another year of hard pass for me since I ride Zwift between those times and I’m not going to get up at 0415 to make a 5am start.
What is FAL and FTS?
First across line and fastest time?
Yes. See https://zwiftinsider.com/zrl-segment-points-fal-fts/ for more, although all the info there may not be totally accurate, since WTRL has changed how the points shake out for each… but you’ll get the idea.
They are sure taking their time getting the weeks 1 and 4 courses released. I think I was able to figure it out using the zwiftmap site. If I start at the southern pens, up to the desert roundabout, back down the coast past the start line and finish at the next banner (Acropolis), it comes out to only 0.1km off on distance and exact on elevation gain from what is listed.
I’ll be publishing detailed posts next week for each route. Zwift/WTRL are doing a bit of “building the plane while it’s in the air” on this one… but it’ll work out.
I was hoping that the link to recon rides would be working by now. We might be going in blind. I like the work you put in for your idea.
WTRL have said that the route will be in the update getting released this week. Hopefully the rollout goes smoothly, anyone wanting to do an organised recon ride will need that update.
That said, the route Mark described is exactly what I expect the course to be, it’s easy enough to manually navigate should anyone need to do so.
Does anyone know how many teams are needed to register in a category/time zone for ZRL/WTRL to run it? 3 or 4?
Thanks Eric, race 2 is showing as 35 minutes on the ZRL site. A typo?
When will Round 2 details be available? The info is still out of date on the WTRL website.
As a fan, not regisered, can I see the final results somewhere?
They only show on WTRL’s website, which requires a login.
Thank you for the rapid reply, Eric. Pitty, and what is the reason? I post cyclingresults, road en Zwift, of my daughter for friends and family. When Zwift is a tt or one road race, I can find the results in her account, but would be nice to know for example points and ranking as well.
Looking at the color code versus the proper regional names seems to be a disaster for league naming convention. The colors have zero relationship to the geographics. At least the names, eg Americas, was informative. I see this a still a failure IMO. Then add the failure of ZRL to fix their category mechanism for leagues color names with zero relationship to geography or timezone.